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We are starting afresh with our efforts in analysis by digging into pieces that less experienced pianists are more likely to be able to play and which provide ample opportunities to develop analytical skills.

We will start with Clementi's Sonatina Op. 36 No. 1 in C major, first movement.It should be known to many pianists.

Interesting, I first played this 22 years ago.. my introduction to Clementi and really among the first classical music pieces I ever played. I can't hear the audio on the computer I'm on right now (on the road), but I'll check it out when I get back next week. I may follow along on this one. Good choice.

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The sonatina is like a simple version of the sonata. Both have three movements, usually with the middle movement slow and the others fast such as allegro.

In sonata-allegro form (I've seen it written as "sonata form"), the piece has three sections:1. Exposition: Two or more themes or subjects are set out, one after the other, with the second one in a new key. Sometimes there will be a passage bridging the subjects, and the section can be prolonged at the end.2. Development: This is where the composer gets creative. He may take part of the original subject and play with it, going to different keys.3. Recapitulation: The composer goes back to the subjects we saw in the Exposition. This time the second subject will stay in the original key.

A sonatina is much simpler version of a sonata. In the first Allegro movement, the music up to the repeat sets up the subjects in the two keys. In the second half, there is a short development. Then we see the same subjects that we had before in the Exposition. The first is an octave below the original, and Clementi does a mirror image of some of the notes. The second movement stays in the tonic key.

Let's run through some of the things we can do at the start of our analysis.

Look at:1. The composer. This will give a very rough guide to date and style. The more you know about the principal composers of the period the more information you can glean just from the name.

Clementi is considered the father of modern piano playing. He was the first composer to make use of the dynamic properties of the new instrument and the new action. He competed with Mozart for piano-playing honours (and gained far more from it than Mozart ever did). His compositions evoked the admiration of Beethoven (for whom he became the English publisher) and Brahms. He is famed for his ability to play thirds, and you'll come across some in this sonatina.

He is probably most famous for his Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Parnassus), a collection of 100 exercises to develop pianoforte technique. Though they are less favoured now than they have been they are, like Chopin's etudes, full of musical value as well as pedagogical value. They are not, though, for beginners.

His six progressive sonatinas, of which we are studying the first, are still standard fare in piano pedagogy. They have much musical interest and provide would-be pianists with first class opportunities for a fine, well-rounded technique.

2. The title. This may give an initial indication to the form or genre and (coupled with the composer) an indication of what to expect. A sonatina in Clementi's hand is a sonata on a small scale.

As has been mentioned in our travels, the architectural forms developed before 1600 were musically satisfying. They are the backbone of contemporary songs today. But with the development of equal temperament and tonality there emerged out of the otherwise simple binary form a more versatile method of providing structure, namely key.

After the height of the baroque period (around 1720) and the deaths of Bach, Handel and Scarlatti there was a lull in musical creativity (in terms of great composers). Most of the new music was provided by the sons of Bach, predominantly CPE and JC Bach and revolved around the Galant style, the storm and stress movement building up in literature and the sentimental Empfindsamer style. These styles merged towards the end of the century (around 1770) and two huge figures rose to lead the way in the development of the classical sonata and symphony, Haydn and Mozart.

3. The music. Key, tempo, metre, texture, colour (amount of accidentals), dynamics, rhythmic diversity, scale and complexity can all be had from a fairly quick perusal of the score.

Repeat bars are an easy to spot indicator of sections though not always exactly at the section end. Rests in both hands can sometimes indicate the same thing. Plain double bar lines usually indicate a division between sections.

4. After reading or playing through and listening, hearing or imagining (or audiating as Edwin Gordon describes it) the music we should have a better idea of what's going on and we can begin to define sections, pick out principal cadences and thematic material and gradually allow the form and structure to emerge.

5. After a good overview we could begin a key scheme diagram and/or harmonic analysis.

Your numbering efforts are greatly appreciated, Greener. I think (?) usually every movement starts with a number 1 since they can also be played as separate pieces. For me personally a number is a number but the group may feel different, and maybe we should be correct about it.

3. Key, tempo, metre, texture, colour (amount of accidentals), dynamics, rhythmic diversity, scale and complexity can all be had from a fairly quick perusal of the score.

key, tempo, and meter are clear

What is texture?

What is colour? Going by the clue "amount of accidentals" I imagine it might mean how often it changes keys by modulation? In which case accidentals used for things like neighbour tones would not count.

Your numbering efforts are greatly appreciated, Greener. I think (?) usually every movement starts with a number 1 since they can also be played as separate pieces. For me personally a number is a number but the group may feel different, and maybe we should be correct about it.

I have numbered my score like Jeff has done. How should it be numbered?

4. After reading or playing through and listening, hearing or imagining (or audiating as Edwin Gordon describes it) the music we should have a better idea of what's going on and we can begin to define sections, pick out principal cadences and thematic material and gradually allow the form and structure to emerge.

Just listening for now to 1st movement:

2 Major key cadences in first A. Not sure yet, what they are, but sounds like 2. And, it sounds all major.

Section B, starts out what sounds like minor. Again, have not identified for sure with score and key, but sounds minor to me with shift to major at m24.

Your numbering efforts are greatly appreciated, Greener. I think (?) usually every movement starts with a number 1 since they can also be played as separate pieces. For me personally a number is a number but the group may feel different, and maybe we should be correct about it.

I have numbered my score like Jeff has done. How should it be numbered?

3. Key, tempo, metre, texture, colour (amount of accidentals), dynamics, rhythmic diversity, scale and complexity can all be had from a fairly quick perusal of the score.

key, tempo, and meter are clear

What is texture?

What is colour? Going by the clue "amount of accidentals" I imagine it might mean how often it changes keys by modulation? In which case accidentals used for things like neighbour tones would not count.

Colour (color): Yes, it may indicate either a change of key or just, er, colour!

In this piece the accidentals are most likely to indicate key change. In Liszt's Grand Galop Chromatique it may just be because he used the wrong key signature

Texture: Music may be categorised as monophonic (one voice like a solo flute piece), polyphonic (many voices like a fugue), homophonic (melody and accompaniment like a Chopin Nocturne or the E minor prelude) etc.

It may also be considered from the view point of lush or sparse, i.e. the number of notes in chords. Compare this sonatina, for example, with Mozart's Sonata in A minor, K310.

Dynamics: In this work there are no extremes. From Piano to Forte is as far as we need to go.

Rhythmic diversity: the rhythm here is more diverse than the reams of quavers or semiquavers typical of the non-sustaining baroque instruments but there are mostly only crotchets and quavers (quarter and eighth notes).

Scale is small as you'd expect of a sonatina and complexity is, er, rather limited. Mostly only rhythmically simple right hand over mostly single bass notes.

2 Major key cadences in first A. Not sure yet, what they are, but sounds like 2. And, it sounds all major.

Section B, starts out what sounds like minor. Again, have not identified for sure with score and key, but sounds minor to me with shift to major at m24.

I shall go back and verify now.

Oh, my goodness, my gracious! We're at it again with the cross-postings!

Good job with the renumbering, Jeff.

As to the analysis, section A is up to the first repeat bar and B is from it.

In a sonata/sonatina we refer to the first "half" (up to the repeat bar) as the 'exposition' where the composer lays out his principal ideas, one idea or set of ideas in the tonic key and another typically contrasting set in the dominant key. It is not so much the contrast in themes (Mozart used greater contrasts than did Haydn) but there IS contrast between the keys. This provides drama which was newly emerging in music after the Baroque period.

The second half begins with the 'development' where he takes those ideas and weaves his magic with them exploring different keys, variations, juxtapositions etc, and finally, the 'recapitulation' where the composer reminds us of the initial material first heard in tonic and dominant by repeating it but this time it may be slightly altered with regard to what happened in the development, perhaps, and it will all be in the tonic key.

So basically it's the presentation, development and resolution of conflict. The story is told not by the architectural means of verses and choruses or section A's and section B's but by the interplay of themes and ideas in different keys.

Yes, stick with the first movement for now.

Yes, the development begins in minor and the recapitulation begins at M24 in major.

OK, so each movement has an exposition, development and recapitulation?

Any of (or only) the movements in sonata form will have an exposition (up to the repeat bars), a development (from the repeat bars) and a recapitulation where at least the material you first heard in the dominant will be played again in the tonic. Usually both ideas are repeated in the recapitulation.

The other movements in this sonatina are not themselves in sonata form, just in a sonata.

I see the change with incidentals starting at 6. But, when listening, it sounds to me like the new idea doesn't really happen until m9, and already in new key.

dunno, but that was my reasoning

That's excellent, Jeff.

The figure in M1, I will call the bugle call. It recurs in M2. In M3 we have a new figure, a four-note descending sequence. Where else do you see the bugle call and where else a four-note descending sequence?

In M8 there's a new figure, a rising sequence of 8 notes followed by a fourth figure, an octave leap to three crotchets/quarter notes.

If you take those figures out of the score what are left with? Are there any more patterns up to the repeat bars?